Tuesday night Snookers tourney action!

Without getting into a lot of personal details here, had a wife and kid-free evening Tuesday night, so I decided to try my hand again at one of the charity poker rooms in town over at Snookers in Utica (Van Dyke Highway and M-59 area). Totally enjoyable experience - this tournament had a solid structure which allowed you to actually play poker (as opposed to the all-in or fold style you see at the rebuy events) for a couple of hours (20 minute blinds), had staff who knew what they were doing, and the players were generally pretty friendly...I'll try to hit this again soon in the future.

On to the tourney - 49 of us paid $30 (80% to the prize pool), top 5 paid, and freezeout style. 3300 chips to start. First level of 25/50 saw mostly junk folds, but at the first hand of the 50/100 level I bluffed a loose-passive player out with 2nd-bottom pair to pick up a 1200 pot.

Traded chips back and forth for a bit, until we hit the end of the 200/400 level, get my first big hand of the night. Saw A-A UTG, and raised to 1000, player immediately to my left quickly jammed his 5500 or so into the middle, and I called my remaining 3800 as soon as action got to me...A-A beats Q-Q to get a monster pot.

Immediately lost about 15% of my stack set-mining til the turn 8-8 against a player's A-A...and player was nice enough to show me A-A after I folded my 8s face-up while saying "I can't beat A-A". Felt nice to hear the murmuring after that hand - certainly felt like I was "in the zone", so to speak.

We move on to 500/1000 (and last level before a break), and another big pot ensues. 3-way pot with A-7 of diamonds, and flop of 3 diamonds is pretty to me! Another player bets, and I slowplay the nuts here...but being wary of board pairing, as well. K-Q of diff suits come out, and initial better jams for 4500 all-in after the river, and it takes me about .12 seconds to say "call" and flip over the nuts - Set of 2s not enough for the player.

A-10 took down the blinds a couple of hands later, the next hand saw me as the SB raise with A-6 and take the pot down on a A-4-2 board, then my favorite hand of the night decided to happen on the last hand before the break.

After UTG called 1400 (700/1400 blinds), it was folded around to me to my little 3-4 of diamonds...figuring I had a big stack at the time, I called. SB folded, and BB put his last 1400 in the middle. UTG and I both call (I figured if small junk hits I have a great shot), and flop is 7-3-4. Checked around, when an 8 comes. UTG bets out 4K, and after hollywooding for a few seconds, I call. Probably should have raised here, but I'm trying to keep the pot small, since I know he has something here...and dry side pots are not bet into unless someone has something. 3 on river gives me the boat, and when UTG bets his last 5K, I insta-call and hear some choice words from the losers of the hand when I flip over the 3-4 to knock 2 players out!

Since it was break time, a couple of observers and players who saw the hand decided to ask me about that hand, and how I could play 3-4 in that spot - after explaining them the concepts of pot odds, implied odds, stack sizes, etc, I don't think either of them thought I made the right play, but at least they knew it wasn't total "idiot talk" either.

First hand of the break saw a knockout when I take 2-2 out with my 6-6, then shortly afterwards lose 7000 when my 7-7 couldn't beat J-8. My UTG+1 raise (Blinds at 1000/2000 now) of A-10 the very next hand, however, forces a shorty all-in, and me taking his 8-5 out means we're down to 10...final table!

All of us agree to take $30 off of each of the top 5 prizes, so that everyone who made the final ten at least got their money back (fair enough, i figure). Fold the first few hands, then on consecutive hands take down the 1000/2000 blinds when I raise to 7000 both time with J-J and Q-Q.

Misplayed badly one hand, and that cost me. Immediately after busting a shorty after calling in the dark (500 more into a pot of 4500 after shorty in SB jammed for last 2500) with A-3 to his K-Q and having it hold, I raise to 6K with A-6 in the SB - BB thinks for a minute, then calls. After flop of Q-8-8 is checked, I bet out 8K on the turn when a Q hits - BB immediately goes all-in (and has me covered), and I quickly fold. BB shows 8-8 for quads - nice!

Card-dead for a few orbits as we've whittled down to 5-handed here. With blinds at 2K-4K I jam from the button for last 10.5K with "I have no idea", because I never looked at my cards before I made the move. BB looks at me for a few seconds, shows an ace at me and asks "Does this scare you?", to which I reply "No", but knowing that the hand was dead...and then after BB folds and asks if it's a good one, I say, "I don't know, I haven't looked at my cards yet", and before the dealer can grab them I flip over J-4 Heh! Other players (and a few people watching) are laughing, and BB just looks at me a stunned look on his face before chuckling, as well.

Got in with A-Q versus 9-9, and while the door card showed an ace, there was also a 9 on that flop to give opponent a set. No help on turn, and I was gone in 4th for $100...not a bad night at all. A solid venue with some solid players - very enjoyable experience.